The story behind King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard‘s October 2022 album, Changes, is a bit of an odd one, but which King Gizz album doesn’t have an odd story behind it?
Changes was recorded over five years in various studios, houses, and other places, and it was supposed to be the last album of their 2017 project to release five albums in one year. However, the songs they’d crafted so far didn’t fit in with the project they had in mind, and the last album they put out in 2017 ended up being Gumboot Soup.
They never abandoned Changes, however, and kept coming back to it as something they felt they had to finish. The album is built around the concept that every song on the album is changing key practically all the time. The band kept tinkering with the record until they felt they had it right and finally released it just in time for Halloween last year.
The thirteen-minute, three-second opener, “Change,” is the record’s diving board, plunging you into this weird, constantly shifting world. Change is the only constant, after all. The song is a lovely, floating bit of psychedelia that carries you along a winding river which might not end until you’re in the ocean, but that’s okay with you as you’re okay with whatever life rolls at you by this point.
The bouncy keyboards of “Hate Dancin'” are a funny contrast to Stu Mackenzie‘s lyrics about how much he hates dancing, because the song is highly danceable. Cookie Craig‘s funky bass on “Astroturf” will perk up your ears. The guitar on “No Body” sounds like wax melting down the side of a candle.
“Gondii” dives into the band’s love of electronica with its synth-beats and 16-bit video game rhythms. “Can’t get a message to my brain. I can’t control myself,” Mackenzie sings as electro-hi-hats sizzle around him. I think that lack of control is meant for the dance floor. You’d think a song titled “Exploding Suns” would be some thrash metal track on one of their albums like Infest the Rats’ Nest, but instead it’s a mellow track best suited for meditation and zoning out with a pair of headphones and warm tea (which means it’s lovely). The album ends with “Short Change,” a nearly instrumental that runs through the constant key changes throughout the album, reminding us that change is ever-flowing and something to float along with rather than fear.
Don’t fear this album either. It’s not a bad place to start if you’re new to the Gizzverse.
Keep your mind open.
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Today, Australian polymaths King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard unveil their new single/video, “Hate Dancin’,” taken from their forthcoming album Changes, out October 28th on KGLW. Following last week’s Laminated Denim– an album written specifically with their recent sold-out Marathon Shows at Red Rocks in mind – and Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava, Changes marks King Gizzard’s third and final album of October. Originally imagined as the group’s fifth album of 2017, Changes has ended up the sixth album King Gizzard will release in 2022 (rounded out by April’s double album, Omnium Gatherum, January’s Butterfly 3001 remix record, and March’s Made in Timeland, the latter of which was just surprised-released on DSPs for the first time). “Hate Dancin’” is a tight number, clocking in just above the 3-minute mark. “I started writing a song about how I hate dancing, but then I realized that I love dancing,”says Gizz frontman Stu Mackenzie. The accompanying video puts the band’s exquisite moves front and center.
For half a decade, the sextet has been haunted by one elusive conceptual project that had bested their every attempt (of which there had been several). They first conceived the album back in 2017, a busy year for the group. Within a mere twelve months, they recorded and released five albums of new material, but the band had intended to see out the year with a different album. That album was called Changes, and it’s finally arriving now. “I think of Changes as a song-cycle,” says band-member Stu Mackenzie. “Every song is built around this one chord progression – every track is like a variation on a theme. But I don’t know if we had the musical vocabulary yet to complete the idea at that time. We recorded some of it then, including the version of ‘Exploding Suns’ that’s on the finished album. But when the sessions were over, it just never felt done. It was like this idea that was in our heads, but we just couldn’t reach. We just didn’t know yet how to do what we wanted to do.”
The group abandoned Changes and instead prepared the beguiling Gumboot Soup (the last of five albums the band released in 2017), and were then quickly ensnared by about eight other outlandish ideas that sent them in infinite new directions. But the concept of Changes did not go gently into that good night. “We really have been tinkering with it since then,” Mackenzie adds.
“It’s not necessarily our most complex record, but every little piece and each sound you hear has been thought about a lot,” Mackenzie adds. Indeed, the album has gestated over a fitfully inventive five years. But the album has taught him that projects operate to their own schedules and are ready when they’re ready.
Good things come to those who wait, and the magnificent Changes is worth every one of the 2,628,000 minutes King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard invested in it. Soaked in the warm sonics of 70s R’n’B and guided by simple chord-changes that contain multitudes and rounding out another remarkable year for the group, Changes is a luminous, soft-pop marvel. Come lose yourself in its slow-cooked brilliance.
Currently in the middle of a largely sold-out U.S. tour, the band return to the U.K. and Europe for a run of shows in March 2023 which include two nights at the Brixton Academy in London. Full dates are listed below and tickets are on sale now.
Finally, read Stereogum’s recent Cover Story on the band, which dives headlong into their epic month and the history of the band as they continue their march towards world domination is the Greatest Rock Band on the Planet™.
TOUR DATES Fri. Oct. 21 – Forest Hills, NY @ Forest Hills Stadium % Sat. Oct. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall * SOLD OUT Sun. Oct. 23 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem * SOLD OUT Mon. Oct. 24 – Asheville, NC @ Rabbit Rabbit * SOLD OUT Wed. Oct. 26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern * SOLD OUT Thu. Oct. 27 – New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater * SOLD OUT Fri. Oct. 28 – Austin, TX @ Levitation – Stubb’s * SOLD OUT Sat. Oct. 29 – Austin, TX @ Levitation – Stubb’s $ SOLD OUT Mon. Oct. 31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion # Wed. Nov. 2nd – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre # SOLD OUT Sat. Dec. 10 – St. Kilda, AUS @ The Palace Foreshore @ Thu. Dec. 29 – Tauranga, NZ @ Wharepai Domain Sat. Dec. 31 – Wanaka, NZ @ Rhythm & Alps Wed. Jan. 4 – Auckland, NZ @ The Matakana Country Park Fri. Jan. 6 – New Plymouth, NZ @ Bowl of Brooklands Thu. Mar. 2 – Paris, FR @ Zenith Fri. Mar. 3 – Amsterdam, NL @ Gashoulder Sat. Mar. 4 – Tilburg, NE @ 013 Mon. Mar. 6 – Malmo, SE @ Plan B Tue. Mar. 7 – Stockholm, SE @ Munchenbryggeriet Wed. Mar. 8 – Oslo, NE @ Sentrum Scene Thu. Mar. 9 – Copenhagen, DK @ Den Gra Hal Sat. Mar. 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Progesja Sun. Mar. 12 – Prague, CZ @ Lucerna Velky Sal Mon. Mar. 13 – Vienna, AT @ Gasometer Wed. Mar. 15 – Milan, IT @ Alcatraz Thu. Mar. 16 – Zurich, CH @ X-Tra Fri. Mar. 17 – Lausanne, CH @ Les Docks Sat. Mar. 18 – Wiesbaden, DE @ Schlachthof Mon. Mar. 20 – Brussels, DE @ Cirque Royale Wed. Mar. 22 – London,UK @ Brixton Academy Thu. Mar. 23 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy Thu. Mar. 30 – Sydney, AUS @ Big Top Luna Park Thu. Apr. 6 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Tivoli Fri. Apr. 7 – Byron Bay, AUS @ Byron Bay Bluesfest
* w/ Leah Senior % w/ black midi, Leah Senior $ w/ Tropical Fuck Storm, The Murlocs # w/ The Murlocs, Leah Senior @ w/ Stella Donnelly, CIVIC
